Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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PILLOW WITH REMOVABLE INSERT
This invention relates to a pillow and in particular to a
bed pillow.
Many attempts have been made to make pillows adjustable in
thickness so that a pillow can be easily converted to suit
the requirements of individual users. Such pillows have
met with varying degrees of success and a pillow proposed
by us in our co-pending patent application 84545/91 (now
Australian Patent No. 650051) includes a number of
different sections that sit on top of one another which can
be removed to change the thickness or height of the pillow
as well as the pillow contour.
This invention provides an alternative pillow and
alternative manner of forming the pillow.
The invention may be said to reside in a pillow including:
a pillow body having an upper surface and a lower
surface; and
a removable insert cut from the pillow body
between the upper and lower surfaces, the insert being
removable to decrease the height of the pillow. Since the
insert portion is embedded within the pillow, it
effectively forms part of the pillow and is not merely a
separate slab or section which is placed on or below
another section of the pillow. In order to reduce the
thickness of the pillow the insert section is merely
removed from the interior of the pillow thereby reducing
its thickness or height.
The invention may also be said to reside in a method of
manufacturing a pillow including the steps of:
cutting a pillow body from a block of material to
provide a pillow body having an upper surface and a lower
surface and a pair of ends;
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making a cut between the upper surface or the
lower surface and an intermediate point within the pillow
body; and
cutting a removable insert from the pillow body
between the upper and lower surfaces so that the height of
the pillow can be reduced by removing the removable insert
from the pillow body.
Preferably the upper and lower surfaces have a corrugated
or battlement like shape. However, in other embodiments
they could be smooth surfaces.
Preferably the surfaces are contoured to provide a pair of
ridges separated by a valley.
A preferred embodiment of the invention will be described,
by way of example, with reference to the accompanying
drawings in which:
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a pillow
embodying the invention;
Figure 2 is a view along the line II-II of
Figure 1;
Figure 3 is a view along the line III-III of
Figure 1;
Figure 4 is a view of the pillow similar to
Figure 2 but with an insert portion removed;
Figure 5 shows the method of cutting the pillow
of Figure 1 from a body of material; and
Figure 6 is a detailed view of the circled
portion A of Figure 2 but showing a different surface
profile.
With reference to Figure 1 a pillow 10 is shown which has
an upper surface 12 and a lower surface 14. Rounded side
portions 16 and 18 join the upper surface 12 to the lower
surface 14.
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The upper and lower surfaces 12 and 14 are contoured and
have a pair of ridges 20 which are separated by valleys 22.
As best shown in Figures 2 and 3 the pillow 10 is provided
with an interna l insert portion 30 which is cut from the
pillow 10 and which is removable from the pillow 10 by
drawing the insert out of the pillow 10 in a direction of
arrow B or arrow C in Figure 1.
When the insert 30 is withdrawn from the pillow 10 the
pillow 10 takes on a thinner or reduced height profile as
shown in Figure 4 to thereby enable the height or thickness
of the pillow to be reduced at will by removing the insert
portion 30.
The pillow of Figures 1 to 4 is preferably made by cutting
the pillow from a block of material in a single cycle with
a conventional cutting tool. Preferably the block is of
foam material and the cutting tool is a saw or blade for
cutting foam which is under computer control.
The pillow is cut from the material by cutting the block of
material shown in Figure 5 in the following manner:
The block of material 50 is firstly cut from a mid-point 52
into the block of material to a point 53. The lower
surface 14 is then cut from point 53 to point 54. The side
surface 18 is then cut from point 54 to point 56. The
upper surface 12 is then cut from point 56 to point 58.
The other side surface 16 is cut from point 58 to point 60.
The remainder of the bottom surface 14 is cut from point 60
to point 62. The cutting saw then makes a cut inwardly
from point 62 to point 64 and then continues to point 65,
to point 68, to point 70 to point 72, and then back to
point 64 and out of the block of material. Rather than
moving the cutting blade out of the block of material, in
one embodiment of the invention, a further cut can be made
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from the point 64 to the point 66 to cut the insert 30 in
half. After making the cut to the point 66, the cutting
blade can be removed. from the block from the point 66, past
the points 64 and 52 out of the block of material. Thus,
the entire pillow including the insert 30 is cut in a
single cycle of the cutting blade under computer control
to thereby cut the pillow and the insert 30 from a block of
material. The block of material may then further be cut to
produce further pillows in the same manner.
Cutting of the insert 30 in half by the cut from the point
64 to the point 66 enables the insert 30 to be removed in
three different ways. Firstly, one half of the insert can
be removed to reduce the effective height of half of the
pillow, secondly the other half of the insert can be
removed to reduce the effective height of the other half of
the pillow and, thirdly the entire insert 30 (that is both
halves) can be removed as previously described to reduce
the overall height of the pillow.
Preferably the width of the block of material from which
the pillow is cut is selected to be equivalent to the
desired length of the pillow so that no cutting of the ends
of the pillow is required. If desired the block of
material could be pre-cut to provide a block of the desired
width to thereby result in pillows of the required length
without additional cutting.
Although in the embodiment of Figures 1 to 4 the surface of
the pillow is shown as generally smooth, the pillow could
have a shaped upper surface 12 and lower surface 14 such as
a generally corrugated surface configuration or "battlement
type configuration" as shown in Figure 6. Furthermore, the
surfaces could be flat rather than contoured as shown in
Figures 1 to 4.
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In an embodiment of the present invention, illustrated in
Fig. 5, the insert 30 has an unsymmetrical cross section
about a line defined by points 64 and 66. Accordingly, a
plane passing through the points 64 and 66 (i.e.,
longitudinal plane, separates the insert 30 into two parts
of different shape.
Since modifications within the. spirit and scope of the
invention may readily be effected by persons skilled within
the art, it is to be understood that this invention is not
limited to the particular embodiment described by way of
example hereinabove.
